Tag Archives: God-the-Father

Small groups ministry

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I have always had a heart for small group ministry. Corporate worship is vitally important and I’m not saying you should substitute corporate worship for a small group, frankly that would be like working out, but then not eating right. Yea, small groups can be a workout, but the way we truly feed on the Word and of course the Body and Blood of Jesus is done in corporate worship.

In the most recent issue of Christian Counseling Today Jennifer Cisney Ellers wrote a great article condensing the benefits of small groups. “We, as Christian caregivers, cannot ‘heal’ anyone, but we can create an environment and opportunity for individuals to encounter Christ in real and personal ways. We can provide people with the chance to be ‘Christlike’ in our interactions with each other and model agape love. I believe that small groups offer one of the most profound opportunities for the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts and lives of Christians.” Think of it as taking what you receive from God in worship and then applying it in a more open forum with everyone in the group. At some point everyone in that group, you included, are going to need that “agape” love from others in the group. Seriously, where else do you think you are going to get that anywhere else in the world?

Please read the following with an open-mind, small groups really are so important. Guys, you need a group where you can be encouraged, strengthened, mentored. Too many guys think that they can handle everything on their own, despite the fact they’ve never had to deal with it, no one’s ever given them any information or guidance and, big guy, if you really are serious about your family, being a great husband and father, doesn’t your wife and children need your best effort? Part of that should be getting help and guidance from other Christian men. Right? We are pulling together a men’s group at First St Johns, we will need a lot of help to get going, so please be one of those guys who steps up if you live in the York, Pa. area. Otherwise find a good group in your area or better yet, get together with your pastor and let him know what you’d like to do. We already have a great women’s group at First St Johns, and we have other groups like “Discipling”, “Grief Share”, Employment Support, Prayer Group, Sunday Bible Study, so if you are local here, please don’t hesitate to be a part of great groups.

Jennifer Ellers goes on to enumerate the benefits of small groups:

  • Universality: Small groups reinforce the sense that we are connected to others through common experiences and shared feelings. When others describe emotions similar to what another member is going through, their sense of isolation is diminished and they experience connection.
  • Altruism: Small groups provide the opportunity for members to share themselves and help others. Many studies have shown the power of offering assistance to others to improve self-esteem.
  • Instillation of hope: When people see others moving through difficult situations and healing, they believe it is possible for them as well.
  • Imparting information: People in small groups share practical information about what has been helpful or harmful to them. Group members have the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others.
  • Development of social skills or ‘socializing techniques’: Group members can learn and practice social and interpersonal skills in the safe and supervised environment of the group. They can learn how their actions and interactions are perceived by others and discover new ways of interacting when their current behaviors are not getting the desired outcome.
  • intimate behavior: Groups offer modeling, by leaders and other group members, of critical social skills – such as sharing feelings, handling criticism or conflict and offering support.
  • Cohesiveness: One of the most important healing factors in any small group experience is for group members to experience a sense of cohesiveness or belonging. This happens when members feel acceptance and validation.
  • Existential factors: Small groups can help members see a ‘big picture’ of life in terms of meaning and purpose.
  • Catharsis: Groups provide a safe atmosphere to let out deep emotions and painful experiences. Expressing emotions in front of others and having those feelings validated decreases levels of stress, tension and pain.
  • Interpersonal learning and self-understanding: Small group members may have a clearer view and the ability to learn when they see themselves in others or reflect how others see them. These two factors overlap and interact, but also provide an opportunity for increased self-awareness for all group members. (Jennifer Cisney Ellers  Christian Counseling Today Vol 20 No 4 pp 20-21)

These are the benefits to a small group. It’s sort of a workplace mantra to “not reinvent the wheel”, point taken in the work world. Why wouldn’t we benefit from the experiences of mature Christians in their interpersonal relations? Bear in mind that small groups need time to grow in a lot of ways; trust, cohesiveness, maturity, etc. If you do make a commitment to a group do it with the intent that you will give as much as get, that you want to be a better Christian disciple as well as Christian spouse, parent, child, employee, etc.

God lives in community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we live in community with the Trinitarian God, and we live in community with the Body of Christ, our church, our brothers and sisters in Jesus. A body cannot live in isolation from other parts of the body, to be strong, healthy Christians. To be part of a strong, healthy church we need to be part of a Christian group where we can grow and where we can help brothers and sisters in Jesus to grow.

Please check out some of the groups at First St Johns, if you have an idea please let me know. Believe me, I will go to great extents to do whatever I can to help build strong Christian brothers and sisters to be part of strong groups of Christians. But make a commitment to be a part of a Christian small group and grow as a mature Christian disciple.

All the Lord’s people prophets

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We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and of God the Son and of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know the power of the Holy Spirit said … AMEN
The feast of Pentecost is the oldest continuous celebration that Christians observe. Reason being it was originally a Jewish festival that God directed Israel to remember going all the way back to Deuteronomy 16:10. It is originally referred to by Yahweh, as communicated to Moses, almost what we would think of as Thanksgiving in the United States. Israel was to raise up thanks to Yahweh for the “first fruits, the first harvest”. God reminds Israel: “I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’ (Joshua 24:13) Israel would have a lot to be thankful for. The Israelites had to fight their way in, but when they made it, there is ready made homes, fields, vineyards. They had to make their way into Palestine/the Promised Land, but Yahweh intends that when they get there, they will be set, they will be free from the paganism they escaped from in Egypt and that surrounds them and they would be able to provide for themselves. Pentecost was also a day to remember that Yahweh gave Israel His Law. The Law is what Israel is built on. Jewish people believe that they are saved by the Law, so Pentecost is to celebrate what they perceive as their salvation in the Law. In response there was only continual griping. God is providing them with manna to live on, He gives them water, He gives them the Law, He gives them the promise of a fruitful life in the Promised Land and what is their response? “We are still in the desert, we’re sick of this manna and we don’t want to go to the Promised Land because we are afraid and we just don’t trust your promises.” So God hears the griping, He gets angry, that means Moses gets angry who whines to God and Yahweh tells Moses to bring the 70 elders of Israel together for a huddle. Moses is fed up with the complaining and so Yahweh promises: “Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.” (Numbers 11:17) Life is not a bed of roses for Israel, but they are about to see the fulfillment of God’s promises. Considering everything God has promised them it’s a life that’s not to shabby and their response is to continue to fuss and whine.
Take out your bulletin. Look at the Numbers reading verse 25. “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him [Moses], and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders.” What do you notice about “God’s Spirit”? It’s capitalized, a proper noun. “What” you say, “this is 1,500 years before the Holy Spirit descends on the disciples, what’s going on here?” Yahweh gave Moses the Holy Spirit probably right from the start of His revelations to Moses. William Wrede describes it: “…the Lord comes down in the cloud and gives them a gift. The same gift of the Spirit given to Moses is now shared with the seventy. Moses loses none of his gift, but as one candle lights another, the Spirit is given to each and they all begin to prophesy. This is God’s gift to his people to be a blessing to others.”1 I really like that imagery, while the Holy Spirit didn’t descend upon the Jews in the desert the same way He did on the disciples in Jerusalem, the outcome is still the same. Men possessed by the Holy Spirit and led by Him to prophesy. Clearly a preview of the Christian Pentecost here in the Sinai desert 1500 years before Jesus. These two men, Eldad and Medad, apparently didn’t check their e-mail or got caught in traffic, and didn’t make it to the elder’s meeting at the tabernacle and they are back in the camp, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t miss them. Joshua rushes to Moses to rat them out, contrary to expectation Moses is not at all disturbed: “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets.”
Fast forward 1,500 years, we see a stark contrast. Where Israel had God’s promises of material satisfaction in Israel, they had the tangible tablets of the Law, and some of them even had the Holy Spirit. We find Jesus’ disciples huddled together in a house in Jerusalem. While everyone else in Jerusalem is probably out, celebrating the third most important feast-day in Judaism, the disciples probably still have a “bunker mentality”, they remember Jesus’ promise, ten days earlier: “…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” (Acts 1:5, 8) OK, fine, but when will that happen? In the meantime, “we’re going to hide out here, our Shepherd’s gone, no doubt there are people who want to arrest us and are looking for us. Until such time as Jesus does what He promised and we have no idea what that really means”, maybe they don’t remember Numbers 11, “we will make ourselves very scarce.”
Hiding away, cowering. Certainly an odd contrast to their ancestors who are standing out in the desert heckling Moses, demanding immediate satisfaction. The disciples are together, they are trusting in Jesus’ promise, they don’t know how that will happen, but in faith they wait. Their faith is rewarded, probably beyond anything they imagined: “…a sound like a mighty rushing wind..” You’ve probably heard people describe an on-coming powerful tornado,… they often say it sounds like an approaching freight train, concentrated power and fury. Can’t we imagine the Holy Spirit’s approach being at least like a freight train? The Greek is pneu,matoj a`gi,ou in English we have the word pneumatic, as in pneumatic tool, how is a pneumatic tool powered? … Compressed air, we have tools that use the power of compressed air. In Hebrew the word is x;Wr [ruach] which also means “wind, spirit”. Both usages imply momentous power. This wasn’t just a sudden burst of wind, but an enormous, continuous blast, a strong enough blast that all these people in Jerusalem, our reading says “…devout men from every nation under heaven..” rush together, “bewildered”, what is this noise! We don’t rush into the street at any random burst of wind, we might take a quick look out, but normally we don’t pay anymore attention. Then “…divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” Now that we have your attention, you will hear us preach in your native language. This is all the work of the Holy Spirit, a clear demonstration that God is at work, the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to preach in a way he would never have before (this is the same guy who didn’t want to talk about Jesus to a few people after Jesus had been arrested. Now Peter is proclaiming the Gospel to thousands.) From this Peter is used to bring three thousand souls to know Jesus as their Savior.
Remember they are here to celebrate the “Feast of the First Fruits” those who God chose to come to faith are now the “First Fruits” of the Christian church. Philip Schaff notes: “This festival was admirably adapted for the opening event in the history of the apostolic church. It pointed to the first Christian harvest … We may trace to this day not only the origin of the mother church at Jerusalem, but also the conversion of visitors from other cities, as Damascus, Antioch, Alexandria and Rome, who on their return would carry the glad tidings to their distant homes…”2
We who are chosen by God to be saved in Christ, baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Spirit, disciples and apostles of Christ, we are called to proclaim Him just as the disciples did on the Festival of First Fruits. We are called to proclaim Him in the language and understanding of those we know, being used by the Holy Spirit to reach those He has put in our lives to point to the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that only He can promise. Take some time this week in prayer, help us Father to feel the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and to live that life in Him and to the world. The Spirit’s power in the wind, but to also pass from you to those He leads you to, like a candle lighting another candle. And also as our young men are “lighted” by the Holy Spirit in recognition of their confirmation today.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Fear and awe of Him who wants what is best for us, He loves us very much.

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This is from Henry Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day “Those who perceive God as a benevolent and gentle grandfather will treat their sin superficially. They will worship halfheartedly. They will live life on their own terms rather than God’s.”

That really is the way we are in this day and age, it’s all about me, I know best, everyone/ everything is here for my convenience, my pleasure. Come on, you know what Blackaby is talking about. We think of God today as an indulgent, enabling, kind of senile, out of it old man. We reject the Old Testament, because “oh my that has to be a different God…” Really? How do you figure? We paint Jesus to be a sort of milquetoast, meek and mild. This is the same guy who said, ““Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matt 10:34 ESV, Bible Hub) Cleansing the temple, confronting the Pharisees. In the Old Testament, Yahweh directed Israel to destroy the people in Palestine. These people were profoundly evil, sacrificing their babies, temple prostitution worshipping false “god’s” by trying to pacify evil “gods”. Yahweh wanted His people, Israel, to go into a land where they would not be influenced by evil of these people. To give them a chance to be isolated from the pagan evil around them. They didn’t, the Old Testament is all about Israel/us playing around with evil, getting in trouble, being saved by God, rinse, repeat.

God is perfectly just, He does not tolerate sin. Hey I’m as guilty as anyone, justifying sin as a “mistake”, an isolated incident, misjudgment, whatever gratuitous phrase we like to use. I don’t see anywhere that God has suspended the Ten Commandments, yet we all break them without so much as a “how do you do.” Yes we are all sinners and we do offend God, but for those who are in Christ they are forgiven. They do fear God, fear in the sense of respect, awe, treating Him in the manner that we should treat the Creator, Sustainer and Judge of everything. I really think that deserves profound respect, instead of the casual nod we usually give.

“One of the great condemnations of our day may be that we have lost the fear of God. We promote Him as a ‘best friend’ who saves us and ‘lives in our hearts’, but we do not fear Him.” For many of us, our human dads were stern, they could be fearsome. Often they would act angrily and lash out. Hey, dads are human too, I’m one, I know. But come on, our dads wanted what was best for us, they wanted to send mature, responsible, decent people into the world. To do that, yea sometimes their wrath would be manifested (like that little turn of phrase?). We should want to grow closer to God, to His nature. We can’t achieve that, but that’s where we should be moving. Instead we move towards self-idolatry, living in our self-absored adolescence, convinced that it’s all about us and we don’t owe anyone, no less God anything.

  The world is a dangerous place, no less spiritually then physically. Frankly spiritually it’s far more dangerous. Physically most of us will be fairly safe and die from some break down in our body. Spiritually? Heck check out television, all the people around us, what government is moving towards compelling us to do, what it already does impose. The world is continually trying to position us to compromise our relationship with God. Too often we go along with it expecting that God is supposed to just give us a wave. That’s not the lesson of the Old Testament, heck ever read Revelation, New Testament? 

Blackaby closes by saying “If you find that you have become complacent with God’s commands and have become comfortable in your sin, you are completely isolated from God’s holiness. Take time to meditate upon the awesome holiness of God and allow the Holy Spirit to instill into your life a proper reverence for almighty God.” There can be no question that God loves you, if you are in Christ you are His adopted child. As His child He expects to be treated as the great and awesome God that He is. He wants what is best for you, He is God, He knows what is best for you. If we understand that, why wouldn’t we want God’s way in our lives and put aside our adolescent understanding?

His Plan, His Lordship

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His Plan, His Lordship
First St Johns, May 29, 2014 Ascension Day
We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
The Ascension…, it might seem more like a scene from an old black and white movie, where the gal is saying good bye to her guy at the train station, the guy being sent off to war, both of them know that this could well be the last time they see each other. As far as the disciples are concerned this day starts off as another discipling session with Jesus, they aren’t expecting anything extraordinary to happen, they are just wrapped up in their own little world of expectations.
The conversation might have gone something like: “Hey Jesus, been a pretty eventful last forty days. You were crucified, we didn’t see that coming. You were resurrected, we sure didn’t see that coming. So anyway, on to, you know, the important stuff. Because we have our own agenda, and obviously you have some pretty impressive power. So when are going to use that power for something really important, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
I would like to think that they were all holied up and were looking forward to the Kingdom that Jesus had promised, right? That’s not what they asked though, was it? When will you restore the kingdom to Israel? Who is Israel? Well us of course, the Jewish people. All they have been through and then they try to reel all these events; the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Atonement, the Resurrection, all these things that have just happened in the last 40 plus days, the disciples try to reel these events back into their own provincial, petty politics. “Come on Jesus, sure we’ve seen all these great things, but let’s see something really great. Now that you’ve risen from the dead, let’s kick these Romans out, restore David’s kingdom, we will all reign with you and we will have power and wealth and freedom, it will be so great.” Time after time, Jesus tries to get these guys to focus on what is important. The conquering Romans have been a topic over and over and probably far more then we imagine. These guys can’t get past the issues and ideas that are right in front of them and realize that what is important is not political power. It’s just not! Sure it’s important to the extent that we need government in order to serve and protect, absolutely. But they have, right in front of them, been talking to Him, learning from Him, seeing His power for three years, constantly, day in and day out. Then the most climactic events in human history happen, the Cross and the Resurrection, and what are they still camped on forty days later? Our reading specifically says: “…[Jesus] appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” He’s talking about God’s Kingdom, they’re talking about the Kingdom of Israel, their plan, their agenda, “Come on Jesus when will the kingdom be restored?” It’s all about us, it’s what we want, we want to rule in this world, we want to do it now, let’s go. Government comes and goes, and for the most part, regardless of who is there, things hardly change and if they do change, it’s usually not for the better. God has implemented the “left hand Kingdom”, the world/government, it is important. But in terms of Jesus? Does it really matter who your state rep is last week, last year, last decade? You probably don’t even remember all of them. Yet there the disciples are; “give us power Jesus!”
What is Jesus’ reply? Guys! Focus! Is that what I’ve been talking about for the last three years? Is that what I’ve been talking about for the last forty days?” This isn’t your call, this is not about politics and power, this is about eternity, the real/eternal Kingdom, the only one that matters. Remember back in Mark 13:32? “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” We are all guilty of it, we try to impose our agenda, our goals, our desires on Jesus. Why wouldn’t they? As far as they are concerned this is unlimited power and Jesus is there to exercise that power for their plans, not for His. Much like most people think today.
I already told you. It’s up to you to faithfully follow. At this point Jesus tells them that they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It seems like there’s a lot of waiting with Jesus. They waited and sort of floundered for three days while He was in the tomb, they are with Him forty days they are waiting but they’re never told for what. Certainly not seeing Jesus’ Body being lifted up into the air right before them. But just before this happens He tells them; “this is the plan guys, and this happens on my schedule, according to the Father’s agenda.” Matthew tells them the same thing in Matthew 28: 18-20. All authority has been given to me and it will be better than anything you can think of now. “…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” You’re talking about being bureaucrats, I’m talking about the power of the Holy Spirit. So often that is how God works, isn’t it? Our sights are pretty low and usually we are just so hooked on what the world tells us to want, Jesus tells us, you’re going to have the Holy Spirit. He is going to lead you to places far from where you are used to being.” Matthew says disciples, Luke says witnesses, but the expected results are the same saying: “ you will be my witnesses, my ma,rturej not just in the old neighborhood, but to places you’ve never been, to the end of the earth. The Greek word ma,rturej means witness, someone who is telling you what happens, but in English you also hear …“martyr”? And so it is, that we are called, to put aside our wants, put aside our agenda, witness to what it is that Jesus wants and yes in some form, die to those desires, be a witness to the world of Jesus, His ideas, His promises, His agenda. We can concern ourselves with our trivial ideas of what is important, or we can stand in awe of Him who is lifted up before us, on the Cross to pay for our sins or by angels taking Him to heaven, to glory, to the ultimate power which He will then bestow on us by making us a temple of the Holy Spirit, by showing us the world, not just our tiny little slice of it, by trusting Him the almighty God for what we do and don’t need to know and then going into that world in His Name, power and glory to be His ma,rturej in His power, but also, in some form, probably in His suffering too. But always to His glory, His power, the Lord of all creation. But unlike the tearful goodbye at the train station, the angels impart the promise, the hope, the assurance. You might feel like lost sheep again, in the meantime you will have the Holy Spirit in you 24/7, you won’t be alone. Jesus will return, in glory, this time to be in your presence forever and you will know all the glory and splendor of the new Jerusalem, your perfect resurrection into the perfect world the Father had always intended through His Son Jesus.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

 

Memorial Day is also praying for peace, but there is only peace in Jesus

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Peace, never in the world, always in Jesus
First St Johns May 24, 2014
We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit. And all those who know the peace of Christ said …AMEN
Peace, when we think of Memorial Day, we really don’t think in terms of peace, we think in terms of loss, of death, of valiant sacrifice for a cause. Simran Khurana is quoted as saying: “On Memorial Day, pay a tribute to the sentinels of peace. Sing praises of the brave soldiers who marched forth on unfriendly terrain, come rain or snow, so that we could sleep peacefully knowing that our country is safe.” To be sure we should think of our American soldiers as those “sentinels of peace”. With a couple of disquieting examples America has been the sentinel of peace, at least peace in the worldly sense. Our fellow Americans have been sent abroad in the hope that their efforts would bring world peace. World War II would be the brightest example of those efforts. As a result many countries had been helped to recover from economic depression and the devastation of war to establish societies that have grown in peace and prosperity. Through history countries have conducted war thinking that they will be able to neutralize threats to the peace and establish a peaceful climate. Gordon MacDonald notes: “In its largest sense, it [peace] describes any system in which there is order, justice and security. The Romans talked about peace (Pax Romana), but their system was sustained through violence and intimidation. The Jews of Jerusalem had their own concepts of peace: a kingdom that mirrored the ancient reign of David. [which was founded and maintained by military force]” So we take from these examples of countries that set their ideas of peace on, “so long as you do what you’re told you won’t get hurt. Step out of line and you will be violently slapped down. Otherwise have a nice day.” The One we call the Prince of Peace was crucified in order to maintain control. Remember the chief priest’s word, “this man must die in order for the nation to survive.” That plan really didn’t work out as Jerusalem was reduced to rubble 40 years later, by the Romans in order to maintain “peace”.
Believe it or not, I am sensitive to the fact that people want to hear the pastor say all sorts of gratuitous nice things, tell everyone that it’s ok, that things will work out according to their plans. Frankly in a worldly sense, I’d feel like Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House in the midst of a frantic, fleeing crowd, he’s standing there in his official ROTC uniform screaming: “Remain calm, all is well, remain calm.” In a worldly sense that entire scene is total fiction, all is not well. Of course we have to remain calm, but to proclaim that all is well in any sense, regardless of the economy, politics, education all is not well and never will be.
We talk about peace, but for too many of us Christians we have bought into the world’s idea of peace, which will never happen, or we cherry pick Jesus’ quotes and convince ourselves that there will ultimately be some kind of world wide utopia. In the world’s sense it will never happen. What does Jesus say about the end times, in the Gospels and in Revelation? They will be enormously violent times:“ESV Revelation 6:4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.” The Holy Spirit has maintained “peace” in the world. When that peace is removed in Revelation 6:4, those who are still in the world will see violence on a scale never before seen, even in the most violent episodes of history. The evil of man will truly show itself and all those who have been in denial of Christ and His peace, those who thought they were somehow entitled to any and all kind of peace and prosperity, on their own terms, will be left in the middle of terror and poverty. While they ignored Jesus and relied on their own means, they will find that what they trusted on earth, does them no good when God removes His protecting hand. There is no peace with man, in the entire 5,000 year history of the world, there has only been about 100 years of genuine peace. Man does not understand peace, he will never be able to bring the earth to peace and when God removes His hand at the end of time, the entire concept of peace will fall under the horrors of man’s inhumanity to man.
Many of you here have seen that inhumanity. Those in the world like to point out the times when Christians forgot Christ and took things into their own hands. The crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials. They conveniently seem to ignore the twentieth century, a time when government shoved God out of the center stage and the result? The bloodiest century in the entire history of man, bloodier then all the previous centuries combined. For a lot of you here today you have seen some form of imperialism, some form of fascism, most of us have seen communism and we are witnessing “Islamo-Fascism” in many countries of the world today. When we saw the Berlin Wall come down, too many thought that this was the beginning of world peace, about a decade later a jetliner smashing into the World Trade Center sparked a war, in at least two countries, that has lasted almost fifteen years. I’m not being a pessimist, I am being very much a realist in Christ.
MacDonald notes: “Jesus said his peace was not compatible with the “world’s” view of peace (John 14:27) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” MacDonald also notes that “Paul referred to this as ‘the peace of Christ.” There should be no doubt in your mind that as in everything else, the peace of Christ is far different from what the world sees as “peace”.
I do love you, all of you, you are brothers and sisters in Christ, that is a really good thing. There is no better way to love another then in Christ, because in the eternal resurrection, it will be all about how we love another in Jesus. Too many like to equate it to “I’m a member of the Loyal Order of Buffalo and I love our fellow members.” Being a Christian isn’t a club or fraternity or some benevolent society. When I tell you I love you in Christ, as part of the Body of Christ, in the Fatherhood of God, that is a peace, a love that is forever, deeper than any corruptible, earthly emotion. It does not mean the superficiality of the world, it is a promise of Christ for true peace: “My peace I give you … don’t let your hearts be troubled,” There is nothing, no one, no where, on earth that gives you this true assurance of peace. There is a whole lost world out there, it blames everything and everyone, except themselves, for the lack of peace. The evil of humanity will never be overcome in the world. If anything it will become more evil and more violent.
In the violence and greed of the world we have to remember Paul’s words: “ESV Philippians 4:11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
There is only one peace for the world, that peace is, has been in Jesus. We call Him the “Prince of Peace” and so He is, the peace that will be eternal, a semblance of peace we have in the world now. But Jesus knew that there was no peace on earth and never would be and told us straight out: “ESV Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The world rebels against Christ and like the Pax Romana believes that peace will prevail in our own way. The world can’t get Jesus right, it certainly doesn’t get “peace” right. You and I, we do have peace, we have it right here, right now. This is a peace that you cannot give to someone else, even in the middle of the violence, the greed and poverty, the hysteria of the world, I can quote Kevin Bacon and you can know calm and peace in the middle of all the hysteria. I can say: “Remain calm, all is well, remain calm.” Because in Christ we do know peace in any and every circumstance. All is well in Him.
At this Memorial Day I want to remember Petty Officer Nathan Bruckenthal, the only Coast Guardsman killed in the War on Terror. Please keep his wife Pattie and his daughter Harper in your continued prayers.
No doubt as Christians we are to continue to pray for peace, but with the expectation that true peace will only be realized in Christ and in His return. We who are in Him know true peace and we want to let others know that true peace is in Him. Share that reality with all you those you know.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

God’s Promises

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God’s promises rely on them don’t run from them
First Saint Johns May 4, 2014
God so loved the world, John tells us that. Is there any doubt in your mind? How has God shown His love? Here are two disciples, Cleopas and another man. The topic of conversation, the things that have happened in Jerusalem in the last few days. We know this because Cleopas got a little snippy with their fellow traveler when He asked what they were talking about. “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” Sort of where have you been all your life, don’t you know what’s going on around you? Seems to me Cleopas and the other disciple are the ones who aren’t completely paying attention. Where are they going? … Emmaus. Where did Jesus tell the women to have His disciples meet Him? Galilee. They probably understood that to mean Capernaum where Jesus spent 60% of His incarnate ministry. The sea of Galilee, is over 60 miles straight north of Jerusalem. The feast of the Passover has just been held in Jerusalem, everyone has been there. These two disciples have chosen to leave and they are going to Emmaus, about 15 miles west of Jerusalem. While they are stunned that someone is so out of touch in Jerusalem, the One talking to them … Jesus, is probably stunned too and probably irritated. Why? Can’t you imagine Jesus thinking, “wow, didn’t I just tell all of you what would happen? Did you forget so soon? Maybe you got outta Dodge a little early, the rest of the disciples waited for further direction. More likely they are still in stunned disbelief from the events of Friday, and they might have run away from the events of the cross, but they regrouped.” Matthew 16:21 just before the Transfiguration, the sequence of events that lead to the cross: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Maybe the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, didn’t get that in their notes. Or maybe they’re so upset they didn’t remember or, worse, didn’t trust what Jesus told them and hadn’t stayed in Jerusalem to await the directions that the angel has given to those who remained.
So Jesus takes His two disciples to task: “he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” He could have said, what I told the whole group just before the events that led to My crucifixion, the promise that I made “…on the third day be raised.”? As far as they know a complete stranger has called them out. “Why didn’t you stay? Why have you wandered off? You heard the promise and yet here you are, you’re not in Jerusalem, you’re heading west instead of north to Capernaum as the angel told the women to do. To the place where we shared great times, you heard great teaching and saw stupendous miracles. Why have you picked up and deserted your call? Cleopas refers to Jesus as a “prophet”, the Concordia Self Study Bible notes: “They had respect for Jesus as a man of God, but after his death they apparently were reluctant to call him the Messiah.”1 Jesus goes on to remind them of what Moses and the Prophets, that is everything that was written about Him in the Old Testament, “…seems like you boys need a refresher course, maybe you didn’t hear what I said, but this is what Torah has been saying about me for the last 1,500 years beginning with Moses.” Then Jesus acts as if He’s going to keep going when they want to stop, sort of a way to show His disappointment?
Jesus made a lot of promises to the disciples during His incarnation, He continued to make these promises through His apostles, listen to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians: “Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed.” This is the promise that Jesus is all about, that He demonstrated on Easter Sunday. “You see how Jesus was resurrected, that will be us at the last trumpet. We will be imperishable, our bodies will be made to be perfect, no defect, no death, made to exist forever in the New Jerusalem, the new world that God had intended the world to be, a perfect world where we will see the fulfillment of another of Jesus’ promises “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (Jn 10:10). We tend to take the word “promise” a little too glibly. We make promises a lot, often our fingers crossed behind our back. The Greek word evpaggeli,a means “assent or pledge, especially a divine assurance of good.”2 God has made a lot of promises, through the prophets in the Old Testament, through Jesus and His apostles in the New Testament. Have any of these promises not been kept? And what is it that drives our faith, the promises that we know that will be kept. The resurrection! We haven’t seen the end times yet, but when we do what is our promise? Eternal, abundant life!
We have Peter on the day of Pentecost in our Acts reading. In the Gospel reading the disciples are holed up in an upper room, windows closed, doors locked, Jesus in His resurrected body appears to them to give them assurance in their fear and then what happens, they aren’t running off to Emmaus, they aren’t hiding behind locked doors, the Holy Spirit has descended on them, and now they roar out of those doors like the Penn State football team and their leader, Petros, the rock, is standing in broad daylight, before thousands of men in Jerusalem proclaiming the promises of Jesus. He holds them accountable, Peter tells them they have committed deicide, they have assisted in the death of the Messiah that God has been promising for centuries. They feel convicted, they know this has happened, they have been cut to the heart. What can they do? Peter tells them: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Another of Jesus’ promises, the promises that started from the very beginning with John the Baptizer. Repent, Strongs defines repent as to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins”. We know that we have failed in our past life, so now we change our mind, we look at our past life with abhorrence, hating our past life and our past sins and we make amends, we will change our life according to what Jesus wants. But how do you do that? Only by repenting? By being baptized? And what does that do? What is Jesus’ promise that He made to Nicodemus? John 3:5, being reborn into the Spirit, putting on Christ, His payment of our sins. By doing this, we are reborn, Jesus has done it all for us and His promise is that we will be saved to eternal life in Him. What the Easter season is all about.
The Easter season is about promise, it’s about renewal, it is about resurrection as we see the death of winter recede to new life. But for us the Christian, for the promises we have in Christ, it’s much, much, much more then birds and bugs and forsythia and leaves on trees. It is sort of like another promise that God made when He put a rainbow up in the sky to assure Noah that from him, God would save man, not just in man’s physical life from floods, but to eternal life in the promised Messiah.
We have so many promises from God that do, as Jesus promised, give us life more abundant, this book is all the promises in the Bible that God has made to us. It lists out 307 pages of God’s promises. The promise that they would have the Holy Spirit is coming to the disciples. Most waited faithfully in Jerusalem, albeit hiding behind locked doors, two decide to go west, feeling that the promise wouldn’t be fulfilled. But it was when the disciples would shortly, receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit whose temple we become in baptism.
Trust in God’s promises to us that are documented right here, the new covenant, the new contract that Jesus made. We rely on His payment of our sins and His promises to us that we will be saved to eternal life. Do some Bible reading, check out Paul’s epistles where the promises come fast and furious. What promises do you see and how do they affect your life in Christ, write about them in your journal and pray over them in Thanksgiving to our Father who loves us so much to put His promises, assurances and comforts to us in writing for us to read and take refuge in over and over.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Justified by the faith that God gives us

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Justified by the faith that God gives us.
March 23, 2014 First St Johns

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and of God the Son and of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know the faith that God gives us, said … AMEN!

So Paul starts right out of the chute for us: “Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through out Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 5:1) Faith one of the four onlys. I got a little red line in my word processor when I wrote “onlys” there is only one only, yet in Christ, there are four onlys. Remember back in confirmation, the four onlys that guide our faith, yea, I don’t know how you can have four superlatives, there’s good, better, best right? Best is the superlative, the best, there can only be one best, yet in the mystery of the Christian faith, we have four bests, four ultimates. Go figure? Sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola Christi, sola fide. Only Scripture guides our life in Christ, only grace guides our life, only Christ guides our life and only faith/fide makes us righteous. Paul says we are “justified”, because of our faith in Christ we are justified, we are just. If we were brought to court, if we were accused, we would be found innocent, justified. Why? Because we are innocent? Ambrosiaster writes: “Faith gives us peace with God, not the law, for it reconciles us to God by taking away those sins which had made us God’s enemies. And because the Lord Jesus is the minister of this grace, it is through him that we have peace with God. Faith is greater than the law, because the law is our thing, whereas faith belongs to God. Furthermore, the law is concerned with our present life, whereas faith is concerned with eternal life. But whoever does not think this way about Christ, as he ought to, will not be able to obtain the rewards of faith, because he does not hold the truth of faith.”1 So, where do we get this faith? We have a lot of churches that teach that you are responsible for generating your own faith, if you aren’t stacking up, if you’re not healthy or pretty, or talented, or rich, it’s because you lack faith, they teach that God wants us to be happy, healthy, wealthy, pretty, talented, but if we can’t crank up our faith ability, well then it’s our fault and if we don’t make it in these areas it’s a sign that our faith is lacking. Can we, being sinner, somehow miraculously generate our own faith? By grace “sola gratia”, we are given the faith that we need through Jesus. God’s grace gives us the free gift of faith, nothing we can do can give us faith, or help us to increase our faith. We pray, we journal, we attend worship and receive absolution and the Body and Blood of Jesus, we study scripture and through these God gives us faith, God gives us what we need, when we need it. We can reject it, we can decide it’s not fast enough and far enough, like Israel in our Exodus reading. They decided, they wanted what they wanted now! It’s tough to be in the desert, no water in sight, wondering when you’re going to get your next glass of water. We’re all guilty of that, I’ve decided that this is what I need and I need it now. The Hebrew word hsn means to test, as the “Keyword Study Bible” points out: “the Lord has the right to test the faithfulness of His people, Abraham, Moses, David the people complaining to the leaders or the leaders complaining to God or both. And also the sense that God can test our faithfulness.”2 You probably saw the story in the last couple of weeks of the 18 year old daughter who sued her parents, because she felt she was entitled to support even though she was technically an adult. She picked up and left her home, but still expected her parents to foot the bill. The judge in the case according to the New York Post even “blasts her for gross disrespect”. Pretty much every article I saw about her described her as a spoiled brat. That is how the Israelites come off in our reading. God has miraculously delivered them from their grinding slavery in Egypt, he has provided them with food every day in the desert, He has provided them with clothing that for forty years will not break down, He has provided them with water and at the right time would have provided them with the water they needed, but because they were acting like spoiled brats and threatening to stone Moses, God gave in and gave them what they wanted. But they failed the test, God had kept them alive and promised to continue to do so, but they decided they were too important, God was continuing to give them faith, but they rejected it, got what they wanted, but failed. The Hebrew word ,byrI means to quarrel but has the same sense as the spoiled woman, that Israel was somehow entitled to plead their case in court against God, that they felt they were unfairly treated and “deserved” what they wanted.
If God is giving us our faith, we should know that God is faithful and therefore we really don’t have a right to test His faithfulness. The faith that He gives us is intended to be sufficient, when we presume to be above testing, we make an idol of ourselves, we decide that we are above that, too important for testing. Instead of looking for what God is doing in your life through this test, just like taking a history test to show how much you’ve learned in school, when we are tested we look for the lesson, the advancement in our life and grow in our relationship with God, in our ability to be a good disciple a disciple is a student, but he/she is also a teacher. We have to learn in order to be able to teach those who God gives us to disciple. What better way for someone to learn, then by you being able to say, this is how God taught me faithfulness, how God put me into a situation that tested my faith, this is what I learned, how I learned to apply the lesson and now I’m teaching you because of what I learned through God’s testing. Because at some point, that person that you are discipling is going to come into his/her own testing, and the hope is that they will remember what you taught them, see how God is working in their life and we pray their attitude will be, “ok God, I can see this is testing, help me to see what this is about and help me Lord to, essentially, pass this test.” Your disciple learns through your teaching, through the testing that God gave them and they grow as disciples and have something to pass on to those that they disciple. The cycle of life in the Christian life.
We see great examples of faith and we admire those who have lived a life of great faithfulness, St Patrick in last weeks sermon showed great faith in going back to dark, dangerous Ireland. Mother Theresa in the dark streets of Calcutta, St Paul going from city to city preaching a man who is God, who was crucified, and then resurrected. The suffering and testing these people were put through and to what end? None of them really knew in their lifetime, but years later we still remember and admire them, because they did not resist the faith that God gave them.
Chuck Swindoll writes about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn during his eight years in the Russian Gulag Archipelago: “…his parents died and his wife divorced him. Upon his release from prison he was dying of a cancer that was growing in him so rapidly that he could feel the difference in a span of twelve hours. It was at that point that he abandoned himself to God, in three lines of the incredible prayer that came in that dark hour: ‘Oh God, how easy it is for me to believe in You. You created a path for me through the despair … O God, You have used me and where You cannot use me, You have appointed others. Thank You.’” Do you want to be remembered as a spoiled brat? That it’s all about you and what God wants, what He is trying to do in your life doesn’t matter? Swindoll tells about a monument at Saratoga, the turning point battle in the American Revolution. The statue has four niches in it, one for each American general who participated in this vital battle, “the first stands Horatio Gates; in the second, Philip John Schuyler; and in the third, Daniel Morgan. But the niche on the fourth side is strangely vacant…” Anyone care to guess who should have been in that niche? … Benedict Arnold! “’The empty niche in that monument shall ever stand for fallen manhood, power prostituted, for genius soiled, for faithlessness to a sacred trust.’”3 We remember people like Arnold with contempt, we spit on the name when it’s mentioned. We remember the Israelites who so shamelessly rejected God’s faith and threatened His prophet and teach about them with contempt. We remember, someone like the Samaritan woman in our reading today and while she questioned Jesus, tested Him, she is remembered by us for her simple faith, she was the first woman evangelist. After she was given the faith to understand who Jesus is. She said to Jesus: “I know that Messiah is coming… and Jesus said to her ‘I who speak to you am he.” She rushed back to her village to tell everyone that Messiah was here and Jesus spent two days, with hated Samaritans and because of that many more were given the faith to believe “because of his word.” Do we want to live in faithfulness, to know true life in Christ, to daily remember our baptism in Him and His sacrifice for us and to trust in the hope and promises of our baptism? Or do we want to be remembered as the spoiled brat who sued her parents?
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Sabbath rest, we are called to rest

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Pastor Jim Driskell
First St Johns
Sabbath Sermon March 30, 2014 He told us to rest in Him

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father … And all those who know rest and peace in the Lord of the Sabbath said … AMEN

(Juggling my date book,) I’ll do the reading for Exodus, but then I have to keep practicing my sermon, I’m getting sick of hearing my own voice,(sorry I’ll be right with you) but if I do that in the morning, I’m going to have to be up by 5:30, so that I can get my workout in, do devotions, and then work for a couple of hours before I leave, or I’m going to have to stay up later…..)
We keep trying to find that magic wand to make more time, to try to be more efficient with the time we have. When I worked for Motorola, they were big on stuff like this, they paid for people to take Time Management Classes, during work time. Have to be more efficient, which meant your work days were about (holding hands straight out to the side) this much bigger than when you started. So how about family, nuclear and extended, the kids’ swim meets, music lessons, trips, shared times, quiet moments. How about those other goals in your life; sports, civic, academic, your spouse’s pursuits, and yes once in awhile actually watch a Red Sox game? It’s been estimated that if we did everything that we should do in a day, Red Sox extra, we would need a 36 hour day, mercifully that also includes sleep.
The Sabbath is the 4th commandment, Gene Veith notes, “one of the ten commandments, up there with killing, stealing, not committing adultery… the Sabbath’s holiness is to be recognized by not working on that day.”
So how does a Christian manage his time, I have to tell you, not a whole lot differently. We live in the world too. We put too much trust in our own judgment, we have to do this, we have to do that, can’t let my child get behind, got to put more time in at work, do an Olympic distance triathlon under 2 hours before I’m 60, I want more degrees, on and on, when do we stop and wait on God?
Well, if I shift this around, if I stay up later on Saturday night, I can go to one service, no Bible study, no fellowship interaction, but I can do a zip in pray, sermon, sing, zip out and I’m done. Is that an A priority or a B, Covey says it’s an A, all right, but I’m only budgeting two hours, no more. Make no mistake about it, clergy are pretty much the same, different motivation but…, have to get that new book, titled The Two Minute Pastor.
Rabbi Heschel talks about athletes having to take a breathing spell in order to collect their strength. I’ve been doing triathlons for twenty years, part of race preparation is tapering, for the week prior to your race you rest and let your body repair. Last year I decided to do an racquetball tournament match 2 days before a race. I might as well have not shown up for the race. Rabbi Heschel notes the Sabbath, is time God gives us to taper.
What does God say about this? “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, (Is. 30:15). This is our Father who is telling us what would be best for us to do. God is not telling us that we will be saved if we become couch potatoes, the third commandment clearly states that “Six days you shall labor and do all your work,” (Ex 20:9). And we are certainly saved in our Lord Jesus Christ, but the Father is concerned that we become so absorbed in our work, our achievement, things that build our pride that we forget our Lord, we make an idol of the things we do. On the Sabbath, we all can stop and turn back to Jesus. Because the Christian Sabbath means more than the commandment, we observe the Sabbath on Sunday because that is the day that Jesus was resurrected to show us that we have life eternal in Him. Every Sabbath we are not only refreshed, God’s Law tell us to rest, we are rejuvenated with the promise of His Gospel the forgiveness of our sins and our life everlasting in Him. So mark it in your day timer now, Sabbath day of rest. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)
Having said all that, we see that Jesus violated the Sabbath in today’s reading, well at least according to Pharisees. According to the Law, and at the point in time the Law was determined by the Pharisees, it was a violation of the Sabbath for Jesus to spit on the ground to make a little mud to anoint the blind man’s eyes. Jesus chose to do His “work” in this way in order to heal the man. We could imagine that He was trying to provoke a reaction by “working” and He got one. They accused Him saying “This man is not of God…” for, according to them, not keeping the Sabbath.
The truth is as Jesus points out, He is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8), He can do what He wants. But it also raises an issue too, that there are those who feel they have a ministry of quibbling, as if it is somehow a legitimate pursuit to overlook good work, to find the one flaw, the blemish on an otherwise good face and try to deface the entire effort.
If we are called to do good works, we should do good works, if it’s on the Sabbath it’s no doubt within God’s will, let’s not quibble with someone if they’ve just done a good work. Jesus tells us that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is always intended to be a time of rest, of rejuvenation, and Dr Veith also points out: “the Sabbath speaks to us of Christ. That God wants us to honor Him by not working is a reminder that we are not saved by our works,…” But maintain some perspective and don’t lose sight of what God is doing, as the Pharisees did when they were in the presence of God, Jesus the Son of God.
It is interesting to note that in our readings today, Jesus saying He is the light of the world, God telling Isaiah: “I will turn the darkness before them into light”, Paul telling us that we are children of light and that we worship on “Sunday”. We are children of light, we do need to remember the Lord in a day of rest and worship, we do need to do good works and not to tear down another’s good efforts, but help them and encourage them in their work. But the Sabbath is also a time that God gives us in order to separate from the world, the day in and day out, the things that hound us and turns us to Him in worship. We need to detach from the world on a regular basis and come to Him for rest, relief, hope, promise, restoration. You do not get this anywhere else but in the church. When we trust in God to turn to Him on a regular basis, once every seven days seems to be a minimum, He gives us what we need to return to the world truly renewed, restored in Him and ready to deal with what the world dishes out.
When we don’t do that, when we trust in what we want, what the world pushes us to do, after awhile we find that the world has ground us down and convinced us that there is no hope. We find that we have been detached from the Sabbath, which is detachment from the church and then detached from the hope and promise in Jesus. It is a commandment that we are not good about honoring, take some time this week, do it with the rest of the family, how can you make the Sabbath more family honoring and therefore more God honoring.
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amin and Shalom

 

My God why have You forsaken Me

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From Words of Life from the Cross  – The Faithful Word

From Concordia Publishing House Wednesday Night Lenten worship

Sermon: The Faithful Word (Matthew 27:45–46)

 The third word of the cross is an entirely different word. It is a word directed to the Father, a cry of abandonment in the God-forsakenness of our sin. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” spoken in Jesus’ native tongue, Aramaic. This emanates from the very depths of His soul.

Onlookers would have recognized the opening verses of Psalm 22, the desperate cries of King David in his time of trial. “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (v. 1). If they had the psalm committed to memory, and many did, they would have remembered David’s vividly prophetic portrayal of a crucifixion long before crucifixions were even invented. “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (vv. 16–18). Jesus is living and dying this psalm.

With His cry of dereliction, Jesus underscores the prophetic nature of His death. This is no accident, no simple miscarriage of justice, no quirk of history. His death in the darkness between noon and three is written large into every page of the Old Testament. It is the thread that connects the Torah and the Prophets and the Psalms into a unified whole. David’s sufferings are a picture, a type, of the Davidic King in His time of trial, of Jesus on the cross. The sentences are no coincidences; they are the plan of God from all eternity that the world should find its redemption in the death of the Son of David, the Son of God.

This is an easily misunderstood cry. Those who heard Jesus misheard Him and thought He was calling out for Elijah to save Him. They offer Jesus a drink of sour wine and wait to see if Elijah comes.

But Jesus has no need for Elijah’s services. He has come to fulfill Elijah and all of the prophets. His cry is not a call for help, but a cry out of the depths of our fallen humanity, out of our own death and despair. This is your abandonment, your darkness, your sin, your death that Jesus is experiencing in His own flesh.

He became the Sinner, damned under God’s wrath, cursed on the tree. He is the adulterer, the thief, the murderer, the idolater. He is you. He willingly, knowingly, freely offers Himself on the altar of God’s justice, taking on Adam’s sin and rebellion and yours and making it His own. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Sin is alienating. It drives a wedge between God and us and between each of us. Because of sin, Adam and Eve were driven from the garden and barred from the tree of life. Because of sin, we are driven into the isolation of self, the solitary confinement of our own selves curved inward. Sin would shut us from God and from one another, leaving us permanently warped inward in a prison locked from the inside. In our time of darkness and despair, we cry out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” but the truth of the matter is we have forsaken God. We have turned from Him. We like sheep have gone astray, each in his or her own way. We have turned from God; God has not turned from us.

Jesus, as the perfect Substitute, takes our place. He puts Himself where we are, and in so doing, experiences the silence and darkness and despair, the “dark night” of our collective human soul. He places Himself into our killing fields, our death camps, our concentration camps, our abortion clinics, our prisons and gulags. He enters into all the God-forsaken places where we cry out in despair, “Where are You, God? Why have You forsaken us?” Jesus utters the “why” question on behalf of all of us. Why does God permit this to happen? Why do the innocent suffer? Why does a just God permit suffering and a merciful God not prevent it?

There is paradox in this cry. Jesus prays to a Father who appears to have abandoned Him in His time of need; the God who is absent and silent. He cries out into the darkness from His cross, and His cries trail off into the silence of space. And still, like David who prayed these words before Him, He prays. Here is the paradox of faith. Faith prays to the God who is silent, who appears to have withdrawn, whose hand of blessing has shut tightly, who appears not to be there. Faith calls out “my God” and will not let God off the hook. This is faith that clings to the promise of God, when all that you have is the promise of God. Like the centurion who said to Jesus, “Only say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8), faith trusts that the word of Jesus is sufficient.

This is the faith of Jesus that is at the heart of our faith. He trusts for us. He prays for us. He cries out for us. He suffers for us. He dies for us. He embraces us so that we will never be forsaken in our time of need; we will never be alone in the hour of our death; we will not be abandoned in the Day of Judgment. Jesus is there, joined to us and we to Him in baptismal faith. He is with us, always, promising never to leave or forsake us.

Remember this faithful word when God seems to have forsaken you, on your dark Good Friday afternoon. Remember this cry of the Son of God calling out to heaven in your place, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”, and know that God has vindicated Jesus in His death, and He vindicates you in Jesus. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). You are reconciled to God in Jesus. You are justified in Jesus. You are safe in Jesus. And you are never forsaken.

 

For Your suffering in the darkness, for Your cry of abandonment, for Your becoming our sin so that we in You might become the righteousness of God, for Your taking upon Yourself our alienation, our division, our estrangement, our death, we give You thanks, most holy Jesus. Amen.

The Transfiguration of Christ.

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Jesus, God our Savior reveals His deity

First St Johns March 2, 2014

So now we go from Christmas/Epiphany to Lent/Easter, a profound switch. Christmas /Epiphany a season of great celebration, of great promise, the baby, the magi. We go from a pregnant-teenage Mary, courageously traveling 70 some miles on a donkey to give birth to Meshach, the promised one, in the promised location of Bethlehem foretold 700 years earlier by the prophet Micah. Now she courageously follows Jesus to the cross which Jesus certainly foretold, He tells us in our reading today: “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” Simeon told Mary in the temple “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), (Luke 2: 34-35) Later in Matthew 17 Jesus explicitly says “…”The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.” (Matt 17: 22-23) Everyone is on notice, and they seem to take it seriously, but this passes and it’s business as usual. Lent is a season of repentance, part of repentance requires some serious introspection. We are so focused on moving forward, so focused on tomorrow, not only do we forget the past pretty quickly, but most of the time we aren’t even in the moment, we so often don’t realize what is going on around us, the importance of what is happening in real time, right here and now. Look at Peter. As usual, God bless him, he is off and running. He has just seen an astounding event, he certainly knows Jesus the man, He has been with Jesus for sometime, Jesus’ ministry was for three years. So Peter knows Jesus the man, but now he has been privileged to see Jesus God the Son. “His face shown like the sun”, even with today’s technology, we can only light something up so much. Athletes can easily tell you the difference between playing on a sunny day, compared with playing under the lights at night. “…his clothes became white as light”. Remember they’ve just climbed this mountain, now it is hilly here, much more then I’m used to in Massachusetts, but having been to Israel and seen the “mountains” we are talking a hike, a serious effort climbing up a rocky, dirty, dusty mountain. How do you think they looked by the time they got to the top of this mountain?… Yea, scroungy and sweaty and covered with dust and whatever. How do you think that despite the grime and grunge of climbing up a mountain, that these guys looked when they got to the top, that now they see Jesus in such glory that they are down on their faces, terrified? Maybe covering their eyes from the intensity of the light? They‘ve seen Jesus in His essence as true God, the “Keyword Study Bible” describes the Greek wordmetemorfw,qh“To transform, transfigure, change one’s form …Spoken literally of Christ’s transfiguration on the mount.”1 Jesus literally transformed into His essence as God the Son.

As I said, Peter is off and running, he’s so eager about what he’s seen, what should he have been eager about? … He’s just seen Jesus as God! I will bet that Peter, like too many of us today, was a little too familiar with Jesus the man, even though Jesus never hesitated to hold Peter accountable, to assert His authority over Peter, after reading this I think that Peter got a little too chummy, a little too familiar. Why does it seem that way? … Yea Jesus is great and He’s done great things, but right here I’ve seen these two guys I’ve heard about all my life,WOW! “Lord, it is good that we are [wow, thanks, that was so cool seeing Moses and Elijah, thanks and ah… of course You]. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” What’s Peter really telling Jesus? … “Oh yeah, you’re great! And so are Elijah and Moses”. Ya, NO! Elijah and Moses are great, but they are still men, regular people just like you and me. To be sure, God used them mightily, but they are still men. Who is Jesus? … Not only did this happen, but they’ve seen Jesus in a way that could only be seen in terms of Jesus being God, the divinity of Jesus. Peter’s trying to make them all equally great, but right on cue God the Father chimes in from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Elijah and Moses are great, but this is My Son, the One and only the Meshiach, the promised One, true God, true man, He is and will be the redeemer of all who know Him as Lord. So, listen to Him. “The Case for Christ Study Bible”, Lee Stroebel, notes: “Moses appears as the representative of the old covenant and the promise of salvation, which was soon to be fulfilled in the death of Jesus. Elijah appears as the appointed restorer of all things…”2 Elijah was supposed to be the person who would make the way straight for the Lord, Jesus explained that John was Elijah and that is what John did. Both men have set the table, in baseball you have the guys who can get on base, they reliably hit singles to get on base to be driven home by the big slugger. Jesus is the big slugger, Jesus is the ultimate slugger, the Son of God, He is going to drive His chosen people home, the entire history of the Bible, by being that perfect sacrifice, being the complete fulfillment of everything the cumulative revelation of God through Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, on and on. All that they have done can only be brought together by Him who has demonstrated for the past three years who He is, but has now given them a very graphic representation that He is indeed God the Son. Great, Moses and Elijah, but God the Father proclaims who Jesus is and that we should always, ultimately listen to Him.

Peter tells us in his epistle, our reading today: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty…we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven…” David Ohlman writes; [The word] do,xan “glory, manifestation of radiance, brightness, splendour.’ The important point about the glory of which Peter speaks [2 Peter 1:17] is that it is manifested. This glory looks backward to Moses and Elijah and forward to the second coming of Jesus.”3 As Rev Ohlman points out: “…there is something that false religions lack. They lack the Word … God continues to speak, apart from anything man might do. He continues to call out to his children and bless them. The true God is not sitting in some particular place waiting for someone to bring him something…”4 The point was made on the White Horse Inn, that, “It was well known in the ancient world that the God of Israel acted and spoke to Israel, the “gods” of other people’s didn’t.”5 There are a lot of dumb idols that people worship today, they don’t speak or act either, Peter points out that there are many cleverly devised myths from his time. He is probably writing to the Christian churches 30-40 years after the event on the mountain, and this isn’t the first time, Peter wasn’t with Jesus at His baptism, but certainly it was common knowledge that the Father pronounced: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” (Mark 9:7) He was an eyewitness on the mountain and there were numerous eyewitnesses at Jesus’ baptism, there was no doubt about what the Father was proclaiming, this is Him who has been promised, my only begotten Son, true God.

The Father bookends His proclamations of who Jesus is around Jesus’ ministry, from His baptism to the point that leads to the cross. Jesus is making it very clear from this point, where this will end, He will die as the sacrifice for the sins of the world and all people that He brings to Himself, all of us who are adopted through our baptism into His death, who take His Body and Blood who know Jesus as their Lord, will be saved because God the Son came to minister and to ultimately be the sacrifice by which we are saved. So take some time this week to journal what this means, that God, who reveals Himself to us through His Word, is your Lord and your Redeemer. What would be going through your mind if you were on that mountain as Jesus revealed Himself as God. Begin now that introspection and repentance that we should practice in this season of Lent

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

1Keyword Study Bible p 2222

2Lee Strobel The Case for Christ Study Bible p 1344

3Rev David Ohlman Concordia Pulpit Vol 24 Part 1, Series A p 43

4Ibid p 44

5White Horse Inn podcast, December 2013